WOF: What's your favorite media player and why?

[Weekend Open Forum] It's rare that I'm in front of my PC without music playing, if only for ambient noise, and I watch more videos at my desktop than on TV or anywhere else. If you're anything like me, media players rank toward the top of your most used applications -- not far behind web browsers. You've probably tried countless alternatives to Windows Media Player over the years, leaving you with at least one or two favorites -- and we want to hear about them.

Despite losing popularity after AOL's acquisition, I still use a barebones version of Winamp because it's what I'm familiar with and it works well for basic music playback. I tried converting to iTunes a few years ago after purchasing an iPod, but it was simply too bulky for my needs. Meanwhile, Zoom Player handles all of my videos. Although VLC is awesome, I've found that skipping through content can be sluggish compared to Zoom, SMPlayer and others.

So, let's have it. What software do you rely on for your media playback, and why?